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I'm going to come back and add more on all of this later. But, while all of this excitement is going on, let's not forget that our Black men are still being murdered by the police, and that America's relationship with Israel needs some serious re-examination, among other things. Here are just a few quick links. Again, more later.....

O S C A R G R A N T

I have not watched this. I can't. Needless to say, it never should have happened. But, Thank God for modern technology or we never would've known about the shooting of Oscar Grant, another unarmed Black man gunned down by the police. The media has gotten very good at not covering these stories. the whole thing makes me sick...

Oscar Grant, not unlike Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo et al., was a regular young man who became posthumously famous for a very wrong reason. This list just keeps growing and, I am beyond getting angry and, at this point, just trying to figure out what we can all do to fix this; to protect our sons and brothers from a murderous police force and corrupt judicial and prison system. Certainly there is something. I always believe there is something. And, no, protesting is not the answer. In the meantime, here are just a few, hopefuly, informational tidbits:

The following video was created by award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt for, what would've been, Sean Bell's 24th birthday, May 18, 2008:

Click HERE for my article - Saving Our Sons, Part I, my first entry written in response to the Sean Bell verdct.

I was unable to link directly to my blog entry for Saving Our Sons, Part II, (HERE is the indirect link) so I have taken an excerpt from it below. Again, this was written as a call to action after the Sean Bell verdict last spring. Just a few ideas to revisit and keep in mind for the present and future:

...With this, and anything - any problem or ill that we are faced with - once we've understood, or even caught a glimpse of the problem, in moving forward it becomes our RESPONSIBILITY to find solutions, to work preventative measures. It isn't enough to know what the problem is if we are doing nothing about it. In that case, what is the good in knowing??? Clearly, we are ALL outraged at the Sean Bell Verdict, but let's not sit alone with that anger....and wait for it to happen again. Here are a few things we can do RIGHT NOW to support the Bell family, seek justice for this fine young man, and prevent our brother's from being railroaded in the future.

The following information was offered by The Shrine of Ma'at International. Just two years ago, the sister who runs this organization was fighting for her son's life in the very same courtroom in which the Sean Bell murderers were tried. Her son, along with three other boys, was charged with a robbery to which he had no connection whatsover. The Queen's District Attorney had no interest in fact or truth - they needed black bodies to feed into the system and as far as they were concerned, they had that. I am abbreviating this story, but this sister was relentless in efforts to demonstrate her son's innocence:

- She launched her own investigation

-Located the real perpetrators

-Wrote a 15 page affidavit which contained a dual Authentication Seal on the cover from the New York Secretary of State and Condoleeza Rice, U.S, Secretary of State

- She also included an audio testimony from the robbery victim stating that these 4 young men were not involved in the robbery.

This package was subsequently mailed to the Judge, District Attorney, and 145 elected officials. Her campaign was such that the DA's office BEGGED her not to write any more letters, make any more phone calls, or move forward with any more proposed actions. As a consequence, her son and two of the boys were cleared of all charges. The fourth boy – whose mother found her "eccentric" and would not allow her to include her child's name in any of her paperwork – received a five year probation although he, too, was innocent.

This, my dears, is the POWER OF THE PEN....along with some effective usage of your anytime minutes ;-)

let's light up an ink pen with this candle for brother bell

I am sharing the following information based on her research, assessment, and experiences. All whom have expressed outrage over the Sean Bell verdict, should channel that energy into real PREVENTIVE PROACTIVE MEASURES which will ensure changes in the policies and procedures that result in cops walking away scott-free when they've committed cold-blooded murder in the line of duty. I excerpted the following points from an email I received from her earlier this week. I apologize for any formatting glitches. It's much to early in the morning for me to fix them :

1) Contact ROSE GILL HEARN, Comissioner, Department of Investigation and (a) demand that the Queen's District Attorney's Office be investigated, and (b) Demand the resignation of Richard Brown and all of his aides for doing such a poor job in representing the people of Queen's County. Her contact info is here: http://home2.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildoi.html

Rose Gill Hearn is, reportedly, one of the few New York Officials that actually does her job. While corruption will go on in this city, when it lands on Hearn's desk, the buck stops there! This is what her job description entails, yet she is one of the most under-utilized politicians in the fight against corruption. She was instrumental in clearing the four boys mentioned previously, and that was the second time she offered genuine assistance to the mother, when all others had failed.

2) Contact all elected officials, particularly on the county and state levels, and demand that all future cases involving police officers, who work in the same county as the trial location, be prosecuted exclusively by a Special Prosecutor from other areas where they have no definite personal or pre-existing relationships with the DA's office.

Demand, in these types of cases, that ONLY SPECIAL PROSECUTORS be the sole party allowed to prosecute. This will cut down on the Old Boy's Network that contributed to Brown's weak defense, along with gross errors and pure incompetence.

3) Contact the Queens County Legislature and every one on this list(http://www.courts.state.ny.us/lawlibraries/legalsites.shtml), especially all of the executives in charge of the New York Unified Court System: Demand that A BENCH TRIAL WILL NO LONGER BE ACCEPTABLE AND CAN NO LONGER BE PERMISSIBLE in all future cases involving police officers. Demand that in all future cases involving police officers, that A JUROR TRIAL BE THE ONLY FUTURE ACCEPTABLE FORM OF PROSECUTION.

In assessing the problem with the Sean Bell murder, these guys walked primarily because we lacked a special prosecutor and a bench trial was allowed to proceed.

There are two to three more points - including letter writing campaigns and what to do if you are falsely arrested by the police - which I will some time this weekend. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT STUFF PEOPLE, so please check back. It's time for us ALL to stop complaining and get up off of our asses!!!

Around the same time that BART ended Oscar Grant's life, this 22 y/o New Orleans man dealt a fatal blow to his own two-year old son. The headlines, at the time read, "Man Kills Two-year Old Son to Avoid Paying Child Support." Needless to say, the public went off. But, I understood immediately that, although this may be a sick individual, the killing wasn't about child support at all.

Danny Platt, being carted off to prison. The 22 year old told reporters "there were a whole bunch of reasons" for killing his son.

This was about an embattled relationship between the boy's young parents, and
a black man who had been pushed to the limits and, like so many,
cracked. I will admit that I know little about this story, but since learning about it, it has simply stayed with me. I was
struck by the fact that Platt had custody rights but had never visited
the boy until the day he picked him up and killed him. I do not claim to know what happened here, but I do know that a father's
custody/visitation rights are not often upheld by the courts and - I
can only speak for the Black community - there are many women who do
not recognize these rights, use financial support and other emotional
reasons to withhold visitation, use their children as pawns, and
otherwise create hostile environments for the fathers. Many estranged black fathers - the ones we all talk about and Barack Obama referenced in his Father's Day speech - are not absent because they don't care for their children; they are absent because the relationship with the mother has become just that unbearable. I am not making excuses for men and, certainly, this young man is an aberration but, this was not
about child support as much as it was about ending the torment of his
relationship with her.

I don't claim to have solutions to the troubled relationships between divorced or separated parents, I simply know that we will never truly prosper as a people until we heal our relationships. Sisters and brothers who are separated and parenting really need to learn to work together and while, yes, there are certainly some crazed and irresponsible men out there, I am looking for the women - as childbearers, custodial parents, and caretakers - to bring healing to these situations. We cannot change the behaviors of others but, we can create civility by simply changing ourselves, and how we choose to deal with others - especially the fathers of the most important people in our lives. I have, unfortunately, seen many a baby momma drive a baby daddy to his demise. Sadly, I could name many names.

I'm sorry - call me old-fashioned but - I believe that the success of our men, as fathers and contributors to humanity - lays squarely in our laps. We are the healers and the light, the bearers and transformers, Creatresses of Life. Sisters, let's take this on!

"When God Was A Woman" by Merlin Stone, (Harcourt, 1976) reminds us of who we really are. In case you've forgotten your incredible power...